What is the Godhead?

Response

The term Godhead appears three times in the King James Version: Acts 17:29; Romans 1:20; and Colossians 2:9. In each of these verses, a slightly different Greek word is used, but the meaning remains consistent: “deity” or “divine nature.” Godhead is used to describe God’s essential nature. Let’s examine each of these passages and their significance.

In Acts 17, Paul addresses the philosophers of Athens on Mars Hill. While arguing against idolatry, Paul states, “Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man” «Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. », (Acts 17:29, KJV). Here, Godhead is translated from the Greek word theion, which the Greeks used to refer to “God” in a general sense, without specifying a particular deity. Paul, addressing Greeks, used this term to describe the one true God.

In Romans 1, Paul begins to argue that all humanity is guilty before God. In verse 20, he states, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” (KJV). Here, Godhead is theiotés. Paul’s point is that all of creation points unmistakably to the existence of God; we can clearly see God’s eternal power and His “Godhead” in His creation. “The heavens declare the glory of God; / the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

Hands” “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament showeth his handywork.”, (Psalm 19:1). The natural world reveals the divine nature of God.

Colossians 2:9 is one of the clearest statements of the deity of Christ in the Bible: “In him [Christ] dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” The term for “Godhead” here is theotés. According to this verse, Jesus Christ is God Incarnate. He encompasses all (“the fullness”) of God (rendered as “the Deity” in the NIV). This truth aligns perfectly with Colossians 1:19, “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him [Christ].”

Because the Godhead dwells bodily in Christ, Jesus could rightfully state that He and the Father are “one” “I and my Father are one.”, (John 10:30). As the fullness of God’s divine essence is present in the Son of God, Jesus could say to Philip, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” “Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?”, (John 14:9).

In essence, the Godhead is the core of the Divine Being; the Godhead is the sole Deity. Jesus, the incarnate Godhead, entered our world and revealed exactly who God is: “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known” (John 1:18;cf: Hebrews 1:3).